Le Chef — Restaurant in Waitematā

Been here quite a few time in the past 6 months, it was all Saturday visit.

Today was my first time visited here on Sunday, and it was an absolute nightmare.

We have ordered snails and two lunch steak plus coffe and wines like always, the snails arrived pretty quick but only half dozen, I asked the manager and she said do we want another six still, and I said yes, about 5min after, the rest of snails arrived and it teased great.

However, after we finished our snails, it took them about 40min to bring our steaks to the table and in the meanwhile, it was no other dishes served to any other table in this place, me and my partner was really upset about the waiting.

When I cut my steak, I’ve noticed that the steak is clearly under cook and it’s just raw instead of medium rare, my partner’s was fine and I asked the manager for an exchange, after a short while, a chef came to see me and told me he re-heat the steak and it’s now medium and cooked.

This is simply ridiculous, it sound like they just put my undercook steak into an Oven.

I didn’t eat anything in that steak plate.

One good point is the manager didn’t charge me for the broken steak, but they charged me two half dozen of snails instead full dozen price.

Overall, it’s a good place to visit, but the Sunday experience that I just had is absolutely a nightmare.

Reply to the business owner

Ok mate, if you really wanna talk this way.

Keep your arrogant yourself.

I am not being an entitled and demanding Client at all, during the long waiting time, I didn’t asked or chase the dish not even once because I have noticed how busy you guys were.

Speaking about only commenting when I had bad experience, my regular visit and recommendation to my friends is my ‘5 stars’

If I can give you negative stars, I will! Two star is because of all the good experience I had with you.

I made very clear about what happened and didn’t made up anything.

Why is one star now? Because you ruined my day once and now the second time. This is the lowest star that I can give!

You were talking about how Covid affect you and the short staff situation, I get it, but no matter how Covid affect our life, no one should be waiting for 40min and served a raw steak.

During Covid, I lost my job once and suffered financially as well, this place literally is one of my secret spot to relief from my work life, I love your snails and steak and that’s why I keep visit back in the past six month, because you guys are really serving great food with a reasonable price.

I am planning to revisit this Saturday and see the difference, but after this nonsense, I won’t visit you guys ever again.

By the way, you have not responded to the snails price issue, I have ordered a dozen of snails and served with only half dozen and the other half dozen with my follow up request, should I be charged with full dozen price instead of two half dozen?

One last word, I don’t know what is the right procedure to treat a faulty dish, I waited 40min with a raw steak served and the solution was to reheat my steak. My questions is, if this steak is over cooked, what is your solution gonna be? Put it into a freezer?

You just lost a loyal customer, maybe it means nothing to you, but I truly wish your response to be different, like I said, I love your snails and steak in the past, but not...

I had a very disappointing experience at Le Chef. When I arrived, no one greeted me or offered to seat me, and I had to ask for a table myself. After being seated, I was given the menu and drink list, but no one returned to take my order, even after waiting for 5 minutes. The restaurant only had 3 tables occupied (around 6 customers total), with both a female staff member on the floor and other male staff present, yet the service was still inattentive. I eventually had to wait until a male staff member noticed me — and even then, he simply sent the female staff over to take my order.

I ordered a tap beer, a half dozen escargot (baked snails), and the market fish (snapper) for my main course. My beer never arrived at all.

The escargot came out after about 5–10 minutes, but it was poorly prepared — the shells were warm, yet the meat inside was cold. I tried the first one, then the second, and both were the same. I left the plate sitting in front of me, and no one noticed for another 5–10 minutes.

Eventually, I had to wave down a male staff member and explain that the escargot was supposed to be hot. He offered to speak with the chef and bring me a new one, but I had already lost confidence and asked him to cancel it.

Another 10–15 minutes went by and still no beer. The female staff member was busy with her own tasks, and both staff were seen chatting together rather than checking on guests.

My water glass was nearly empty, but no one came by to refill it. When my main course finally arrived, another new plate of escargot was also brought out. At that point, the chef personally came to my table, apologized for the earlier issue, and explained that the replacement escargot was complimentary. This time, the dish was hot and properly prepared, which I appreciated.

Unfortunately, the snapper main course was also disappointing. The fillet was very thin and pan-fried, which made it extremely dry despite the fish being fresh. The broccolini served underneath was overcooked and old — its color had turned olive green instead of a vibrant green. The sauce on the plate didn’t pair well with the fish, and the fish itself lacked flavor. I had to add salt and pepper just to make it somewhat tastier.

When I went to pay, they did not charge me for the escargot, which I appreciated, but they did try to charge me for the beer — the same beer that never arrived. Only then did the female staff realize she had never served it to me. The male staff apologized again at the counter and even walked me to the door, but by then the damage was done.

While I appreciated the chef’s personal apology and the male staff’s attempt to make up for the experience, the evening was overshadowed by inattentive service, missing drinks, and poorly prepared food. I don’t think I will ever come back to this place, and sadly, I cannot...

Most low ratings point out this french waitress is incredibly rude, but she is also arrogant and manipulative. A true bully. We ordered the lunch special, steak for $22, when she asked about drinks we politely declined, she said it was part of the special so we asked which drinks were included, she told us anything on the menu. We ordered mocktails. It turns out the meal is $22pp IF you buy and pay for a drink, so when leaving she tried to charge us twice the listed price with every excuse from the fine print is clear (fine print on a restaurant menu is your first clue it's deceptive) she blamed us, questioned our intelligence, said we should have known by the fact that it was too cheap plus more irrelevant nonsense not worth repeating... it was all utter gaslight tactic to "make us think we were in the wrong" (which sadly probably works often on our humble, kindhearted kiwi nature, like "oh sorry, I must have misunderstood her"). Nope, it was her job to CLEARLY communicate the offer, her intentional failure plain and simple. When we didn't order drinks it was made immediately obvious we did not understand the "special", and she used this to coax us into buying "anything on the drinks menu". When we hit an impasse and she arrogantly told me "well I'm not giving you free mocktails"... I told her "well I'm happy not to pay at all" Once all her usual mind games failed she had no choice but to lower the price. Stay true to yourself people and stick to your guns! you hold the power, don't let anyone bully you into doubt and self-abandonment. Oh and don't bother...